Instead, lawmakers discussed possible ways for the United States to become for fiscally sustainable in the future, in order to avoid situations like the current government shutdown and looming deadline to raise the debt ceiling.

“Sequester was not built to last,” Brady said. “There’s got to be a better way than what we’re doing today.”

Kevin Hassett, the director of economic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, advised members of Congress to look at the fiscal practices of other countries and to set a hard limit on the amount of government spending.

“Consider adopting a firm budget rule that could even be a cap as a way out of future messes like the one we’re in,” Hassett said.

The country’s GDP has already been affected greatly from the government shutdown, said Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, who also spoke at the hearing.

“Even if the government opened on Monday and the debt limit were increased, the damage done so far would shave about a half percent of growth from the GDP of the fourth quarter,” Zandi said.

And if the shutdown continues and the debt ceiling is not raised by Oct. 17, more economic problems will come, he said.

“If we breach the debt limit and the Treasury misses a payment to somebody, that would be prescription for a very dark, deep recession,” Zandi said.

Zandi recommended that lawmakers consider not only short-term fixes to the debt ceiling, but to look at solutions to long term fiscal challenges, like entitlement and tax reform.

Zandi also advised lawmakers to move beyond “brinksmanship” and focus on moving forward.

“What Congress and the Administration are doing now is incredibly counterproductive,” he said. “Simply get out of the way, do nothing, you will be okay. The long term issues won’t be solved, but they’ll look a lot better.”